Well the storm has officially started! We have a 2-3 day winter storm about to hit us. They are saying 8-12 inches. Jon and I went to Home Depot to see if they carried any Toro Belts for our snowblower. Of course they didn't. Then we headed over to Menard's to see if they had them and they didn't either. Jon says he is going to stop by Ace Hardware after work tomorrow. But it might be too late. I guess we will see what happens. It was slightly hailing when we were walking to the car in the parking lot. Jon told me I was crazy and that it was snowing but I really think it was hailing...

Tonight we had Bacon and Baked Potato Soup. It was tasty. The soup was so hot that I think that I burned my taste buds... I should have waited a little bit for the soup to cool down but I was too excited. Hope the leftovers are just a good!

Sunday, January 30, 2011

Jon and I had a busy weekend. We headed up North to spend time with Jon's brother and some of his friends. It was nice just relaxing and catching up with what is happening back home. Sometimes it is nice to just go an hour away from home just to get away and be with family and close friends.

Then this morning Jon and I headed to see his dad and my mom. We headed back home around 2 this afternoon. We picked up our quarter of our cow. I am so excited to start cooking with ground beef again.

I started to plan what we were eating for the week and planned my grocery list. I spent a little more than I thought I would this week but that is ok. I did have a gift card to lower the price as well. So that helped. I ended up spending around $74.00 this week. Not bad for a whole month we only spent $129.00 on groceries. I think that has been my best so far. I had budgeted $50.00 a week to equal $200.00 for a month. So I am under budget. YEAH!!! For once!

For dinner tonight I made Orange-Chicken Rice Bowl from Kraft. It was tasty. Jon is taking the rest to work tomorrow for lunch. Tonight was the first time that I boiled a bag of rice. In the past I would have used the microwave but since ours does not work I had to buy the ones that you can boil in a bag.

Here is our weekly menu for dinners this week. You can also find the menu in my tabs at the top called "Meals this Week". I am going to try to post new recipes that I find to try out and if anyone wants to know where they are from please feel free to contact me. I will try to include a link but in case I forget just leave a comment.

Well it is almost time for Jon and my show to come on The Wild Within on the Travel Channel. I hope that everyone had a good weekend!

Saturday, January 29, 2011

Today I got up at 7 am to start cleaning the house. I got a lot done this morning. I replanted some of the plants that I got from my Dad's service. Last night when I was reading one of the books that my Dad gave me I found a note from him explaining somethings about gardening. It brought a tear to my eye since it was from him.

This afternoon I went to Ikea and got this great corner unit for only $40. I put all the plants on there and it fits perfect in that corner. Now I just have to hope that there is enough light in that corner for the plants. If not I have another place that I can put the unit. I told Jon that we will have to get another on of these to put in the living room since we have a lonely corner with nothing in it.

Now just relaxing waiting for hubby to come home. The boys are sleeping on their tuff. I think that I am going to eat some lunch now. Hope everyone is having a good weekend.

Friday, January 28, 2011

Today went by fast at work. It was so busy that I forgot to take out chicken to thaw for dinner tonight. We should have had Orange Chicken Rice Bowl. Oh well!

Thank you to my sister-in-law who made Jon and I some meals. Wish we had a microwave to heat it up but and hour in the oven at 450 did the trick. It was tasty! I think this was the first time I had spaghetti pie before. I might have to make this one again.

Jon told me that our quarter of a cow is ready to pick up. I am so excited to have ground beef again. Last years cow lasted us just about a year. We had many different cuts on our quarter last year that I am happy just to have mostly ground beef this year. So Sunday is the day to get all of our ground beef. I am hoping that it will all fit into the freezer.

Also, 2 of the puppies from his Uncle's litter has passed away. I guess his dog Zip was not producing enough milk when people were around. So sad. I hope the other 2 are stronger. Well enough said almost time for bed. So glad the weekend is here!

Thursday, January 27, 2011

I keep forgetting to post this photo of our neighbor's daughter who took all of the boys toys and made a trail of them around the house. I think now I realize how many toys the boys actually have. TOO MANY! I could not believe that they wrapped around the whole house... It was a good wake up call for me to get rid of some of them but I still have not thrown any away... I can't. Hank loves them too much!

Tonight I went out with some co-workers to a restaurant since one of them is leaving us work to at another company. Boo! It was great hanging out with the girls. I am not use to doing that but it ended up being a lot of fun. I came home to make homemade pizza. Which was fantastic. Now Jon and I are trying to find something on TV to watch before we go to bed. It's almost the weekend. Yeah!

Wednesday, January 26, 2011

Today was VERY bust at work for me today. Which was good since the time flew by. I came home to Jon sitting on the couch watching TV with the boys.

Tonight for dinner we had Quick Fix Beef Burrito Skillet by Kraft. It was different. I really enjoy cooking something different each day. Hopefully Jon thinks the same. I think next time I will add more beef or some more green peppers to the mix. I think it needed something but I have not figured it out yet.

I have been messing with my blog tonight. Changing the font and changing the background paper again. I cannot seem to figure out which I like so I keep changing the background. Well off to spend sometime with Hubby!

Monday, January 24, 2011

Today I went back to work after a long, long week off. It was nice to get my mind thinking of something else besides my Dad's passing. It was a little hard to talk about what happened but I made it through it without crying. So that was a good thing.

I also started cooking again. Last week I did not want to do anything besides watching TV and sleeping. So I am getting there but it will take me awhile to get back to my normal routine. Tonight I made Beef Stroganoff. It was tasty. I love simple meals.

Jon is downstairs cleaning the dishes while the boys are outside eating there favorite... ICE. I am slowly working on my fan page for Facebook. Hopefully by the end of the week I can have that up and running. Maybe get more of my website up too would be nice. Well off to spend time with Hubby!

Sunday, January 23, 2011

After a very long weekend Jon and I went to his Uncle's house to see the new babies being born. His Uncle's beagle was having her pups and they were so cute. Had a total of 5 pups. They are a bull terrier and beagle mix. You can already see the bull terrier in the nose of this one.

I thought I would share the one that won over my heart when we were there. He/She was a daring little puppy. I wanted to take them home with me but I all ready have two big boys at home and cannot take on another one. But it was sure tempting...

Well back to work tomorrow or at least try and see how I am. Need to get back into a schedule to keep my mind off things... I hope everyone had a great weekend!

Friday, January 21, 2011

Happy Birthday to my Sweetheart! My hubby is 27 now. I hope you have a wonderful birthday today! Thank you honey for being my rock this week during our families loss. I cannot express how much I truly love you and appreciate you.

Wednesday, January 19, 2011

Monday, January 17, 2011

I just had to post this even though I made these last night. Since I wanted to bake something I found a recipe to make pretzels.

Everything went smoothly until I had to roll out the dough into a long snake. That is where I ran into problems. I think that my dough started to dry out and that made it difficult to shape the pretzels.

I had Jon taste them to see if they tasted like Pretzels. He said that they were good like he always does. When I was cooking dinner I found him back in the kitchen stealing another one. So I guess they were tasty.

Sunday, January 16, 2011

This morning I went to my favorite place Wal-Mart to go grocery shopping. I planned out a whole weeks worth of meals with some extra's in there like breakfast and lunches as well.

I paid only $55.16 for seven total meals for the week. I thought that I did pretty well. I got all the groceries at $1.83 each. So here is what all I bought and what $55.16 looks like in groceries.

I also was able to clean the house too. I am now bored and do not know what to do with myself so I might do some baking or something. Jon is now home from hunting empty handed. Today was the last day to go hunting. Oh well, at least he tried. I think that next season he will have to find somewhere closer to home to go hunting. Well off to go and bake... Hope everyone is having a great Sunday!

Well I am a day behind on two posts already... I need to get back into the swing of things and post them at night.

Well yesterday was a busy day. Once we were finished up north we came home had some Taco Bell. I know I did not cook yesterday! We watched the movie The Town. I think that I thought it was going to be about something else than what it really was. I think the movie was ok. I do not think that we will watch it again.

Once the movie was finished we watched a little TV and then started to get ready for bed. Jon was going to go hunting this morning so he was getting all of his gear ready to go. The boys thought they were going last night. I felt bad for them but they did not seem to care this morning when Jon was leaving. So that was a good thing. Now off to get ready and do some grocery shopping.

Saturday, January 15, 2011

Yesterday was a bad day for me. I was going to skip the post but I did take one photo of the handmade pizza that Jon and I made for dinner. I think when things are bad I always end up making pizza. A comfort food for me.

Well not in the writing mood right now. So this will be a short post. Now off to get my mind on other things.

Thursday, January 13, 2011

At work today we went on a team scavenger hunt. It was a blast. Our team leader made us t-shirts with the "Magic School Bus" on them! They turned out so cute.

We had to go to various places and pick up certain items. Here is one of our photos picking up matches. Who knew that would be the hardest thing on our list to find. We ended up being in first place! Go team! I think the certain stores that we had to go into thought we were crazy. We ran around the whole time getting in and out of the car. Oh wait I mean the school bus.

Once we were finished we had to call our boss to find the secret meeting place. We each got a gift certificate and a certain amount of hours that we could leave work. I ended up getting a iTunes gift card and a half day. It was a lot of fun and thanks to our team leader who knew the area really well I think we had an advantage over everyone else.

Jon was off work today and worked on the bike for most of the day. Here is what it looks like so far. I think that he did a great job on everything. I am really proud of him. Well time to keep working on my photography website.

Wednesday, January 12, 2011

Tonight was a busy night for me. I made pulled pork baked potatoes for dinner. It was good; different but good.

Then I headed up stairs to once again try and start me website to sell my photos. This time I put a watermark in the photo so that it would be harder for people to steal or try to get out. I hope that works. Not sure yet but I still have to figure some thing out on it. If anyone knows anything about how to add in the HTML for people not to be able to right click or download I would love to know. I kept searching on the web and nothing really stood out to me or worked so just curious if anyone has that on their website.

So here is the final product so far: http://npozniakphotography.blogspot.com/. Still not sure. I had this a couple of months ago and then learned that people can steal my photos so then I took the website down until I could figure something out. Hopefully this works. I think it should and the website that I am working with to sell my photos is Fotomoto. They print and mail the photos to the customers. I thought of making an Esty account but I would have to pay way too much in supplies to print and send. We will see how this goes. Wish me luck!

Tuesday, January 11, 2011

This morning I woke up to a snow fall. It was so pretty. It has actually been snowing all day. I believe we have had about 2-3 inches fall. Not sure but it looks nice.

We had french bread pizza with chicken tonight for dinner. I was going to make an all white pizza but when making the alfredo sauce it never thickened up so we just had regular pizza sauce instead. It was still yummy!

While Jon is working in the garage I decided to make homemade croutons with one of the leftover loafs from last weekend. I have never made them before but they look fantastic. I made Jon try one first to see what he thought of them and he said that they tasted good. I finally tried one after him and they are not bad. I think I will have to make some more whenever we have extra bread laying around.

Monday, January 10, 2011

This morning I woke up a half an hour late. I thought that would only lead to a bad day but it did not. I was surprised. I just wanted to keep sleeping this morning. I was able to take a shower and get ready all in 20 minutes. So I was not really late to work. I was on time since I really do not start until 8 am but I like to get there around 7:30 am just incase when I get home for lunch that I have extra time to clean a mess up if there is one.

We had leftovers for dinner tonight. Jon is once again in the garage working on the bike. I was going to clean out the pantry but once I got in there I got overwhelmed and put everything back so that I can work on it another day. I need to get it done soon just to make sure nothing has spoiled etc.

Here is Hank sniffing his shelf that I keep the boys treats. Shooter is lower in the photo looking at me but I guess that got cropped out. It was cute.

Sunday, January 9, 2011

We had a slow start this morning. We ended up going up North to visit Jon's Dad and Cousin. Jon talked with his cousin to figure out what they still needed to do on the motorcycle that they are building together. It was fun but a long day. When we came home I ended up cooking dinner right away.

We ended up going out for dinner last night to Chili's, so I did not end up making meatloaf at all. I did make it tonight and it was delish! I ended up putting 1/2 a pound of ground breakfast sausage in with the ground beef. I did not even taste the sausage at all. I guess which is a good thing since we only have 1 more pound of ground beef left in the freezer...

I thought that this was a cute photo to take. Hank and his toy basket. I think that it is about time to go through this and see which ones need to be tossed out since they are falling apart. Hank and Shooter got spoiled this year with toys. But the only problem is that Hank really got spoiled since he is the only one that plays with the toys. Wait I mean to say Hank steals the toys from Shooter saying that they are his. Well better relax and watch some TV before bedtime!

Saturday, January 8, 2011

Today is the day! Shooter's fifth birthday! I cannot believe that he is five already. So happy birthday Shooter! I will have to make you some yummy treats with peanut butter in them... Oh boy!

Today was a very slow day. I did some cleaning but not enough. I did end up making 3 loafs of french bread. This time I think that they turned out even better than last time. Hopefully they are more crusty this time as well. They look like they will be but who knows. I love baking. It is so easy. I really need to get a pan to make the French Bread but so far I am doing alright with just the cookie sheet.

Tonight we are having Meatloaf with Mashed potatoes and corn. This has been my favorite meal since I was a little kid. My mom's meatloaf is the best which I am still trying to make the same as her but one day I will get it.

Well it is almost time for Jon to come home from work so better get going. Hope everyone is having a great Saturday!

Friday, January 7, 2011

Today was a busy day at work but it was good since the time fly by! I love when that happens. Strange right? It started to snow again this afternoon and there is a little sticking to the ground.

For dinner I made Santa Fe Enchiladas Bake. It turned out ok. I kind of misread the recipe when I was making it but it tastes a lot better than it looks. This was the first time I have ever made them so it was a good test. I think that I will freezer them and re-cook them later this month. Hopefully they will hold up in the freezer. I think I should have a back up just in case for dinner if they do not hold up...

The boys were cuddling with me while I watched Chopped on The Food Network. I love that show. It is just interesting what each Chef can think of in 20-30 minutes. Hank's foot/pad is doing better just need to keep an eye on it to make sure that it does not get worse.

Jon is in the garage again working on the bike. Hopefully he can finish the bike up soon. I think that I am going to make french bread again tomorrow. Maybe this time some Baguettes. Not sure yet. I think they would be the same recipe but I should double check. I was thinking of getting the actual pans to make the French Bread and Baguettes but I am not sure yet. I think that they would be more harder and the correct shape if I made them in the pans. We will see.

Thursday, January 6, 2011

This afternoon I also went to the dentist up north. No cavities! YEAH!!! The only thing they did say was that I need to get my wisdom teeth pulled soon. I think that I have been putting them getting pulled for three or four years now. They do not bug me so I think that they are fine. Hopefully this spring I can finally get them pulled and be done with it. Traffic was some what bad heading home. Glad that Jon was there to keep me company in the car.

Tonight Jon and I had leftover of Chicken Noodle Soup that I made last week. We also had a grill cheese sandwich with a salad. It was quite tasty.

After dinner I decided that I should go through my emails from work and do a little work so that I am not crazy, crazy busy tomorrow. Shooter was helping me go through all the emails. Be was a big help... I feel like today is Friday but I have to remember that it is Thursday and that I have one more day of work until the weekend.

I went to see what Jon as up to in the garage and he was working on the motorcycle. I thought that this would be a neat piture to take of him grinding the pipes. Then Jon told me to turn the lights off and the photo turned out even better in the dark. Great thinking hunny! Well it is almost time for bed.

Last night I did not have time to post yesterday's photo but here is it. Only a day late not bad. Last night we went over to our neighbor's house since it was their daughter's 6th birthday. We had cupcakes to celebrate. Here she is with Jon and their dog T-Dog Aka Xena. Jon and our neighbor played pool while me and his wife talked about the show Extreme Couponing and showed each other different sites to use. It was a blast.

Today Jon and I both have off and both have to go to the dentist. Jon is there right now getting his two teeth pulled. I hope everything goes ok. I am cleaning up the house a bit and then not sure what I will do until it is my turn to go to the dentist. Well off to go clean or bake or something on my day off.

Tuesday, January 4, 2011

Tonight I came home to make Buffalo Chicken Mac for dinner. This is a new favorite of Jon's. It is a little to HOT for me but it is still good. My mouth was on fire for about 5 minutes after I finished dinner. Oh well at least Jon has something to eat that is good for lunch tomorrow.

Before I got home from work I stopped at Target to see if they had some earphones for me since my other ones broke. I found this cute Herb Kit that was on sale from $24.00 to $7.00. I could not pass up the deal. I have tried to grow herbs before and they never really turned out too well so here I am trying again. I think that is why I buy them on sale since I sometimes kill the plants. So we will see how this ends up. I really want to use the herbs when I cook. I found another Herb Kit at Target that was a dollar more that looked like a green house but I thought that this one would be better since the herbs would be able to grow higher than the one that was in the Greenhouse.

After dinner I planted the seeds while Jon washed the dishes. He is in the garage right now working on the motorcycle again. He needs to get the bike to his brother so he can start on the next step. Hopefully in the next week or two we will not have three motorcycles in the garage anymore. Not that I mind but we have to make room for the NEW garage bins that we will be receiving. I have no clue where we are going to put these but they have to go somewhere in the garage. We have too many things in the garage right now and I think we need to do a little winter cleaning...

When I was coming in to do this post the boys were just sitting like this and I could not pass up the photo opportunity! They looked so cute. It is almost 9pm and there is this new show that my neighbor said I would like on TLC called Extreme Couponing. So I have to watch it to see how to save even more money than I am right now! Well thank you for DVR's since I am missing the show right now due to writing this post. I just have so much to say today I guess. well I better go and watch my show now.

Monday, January 3, 2011

Back to to daily grind of work. It was nice having a 3 day weekend. It was so busy today at work that it flew by which is a good thing. I was about to head home from work when my co-worker called and she had a flat tire in the parking lot. I was a little help but I called my boss since he had not left work yet to come and help us out. It was a team building exercise... I was happy that he was able to fix it for her so she could go and pick her daughter up. When I got home the boys were so happy to see me. I love coming home to that. I made French Bread pizza out of the second loaf that I made from Sunday. We used some leftover ham from Christmas that I froze and a green pepper. They turned out really good. Now Jon has something to eat for lunch tomorrow.

Also, When I was preparing dinner Jon pulled out his Brie Cheese and French bread. I had to get a photo of this. I could not believe how much Brie he put on the bread. Someone really loves his cheese.

After dinner Jon and I headed over to Wal-Mart to go grocery shopping. It was fun and fast. I think that I might have to go with him more often. Jon will not like that but it really helps me out. I was able to stay on my budget that is between $30-$50 bucks a week on groceries. I even planned out a whole months worth of recipes to see if that also helps save me money. This week I only spent $56.00 on groceries. Not bad since I was spending last year around $100-$150. I think that it helps that this year we bought a cow and pig so we do not have to buy any meat when I am the store. Well time for bed.

Sunday, January 2, 2011

This morning I woke up early due to Jon going hunting but I was glad that I did since I had a ton of things to do today. I cleaned up a little more of the house. Then I started on making French Bread. Jon had asked me last night if we had any french bread that he could use with his Brie that I had bought him. I told him no but that I was thinking of trying to make some. So here is the before and after of the French Bread. I cannot wait to cut it up and eat some tonight! Hopefully it turned out correctly. I was looking at two different recipes and using both of them so it will be interesting just to see how it turned out.

I am also cooking ribs in the oven right now. I am not a big fan of ribs for some reason but Jon LOVES them. So I thought it would be nice of me to make them for him. I think that I will be having Mac and Cheese with a salad. I might try one.

I think that the next baked bread that I want to make is either English Muffins or Sourdough Bread. Not sure which one yet but now that I am not really doing anything I feel like I should make something. I think that I will continue to straighten up the house. Jon needs to get home soon so that we can try out these get loaves...

Saturday, January 1, 2011

Happy New Year everyone!!!! Last night Jon, I and the Boys went up to my girlfriends house in Round Lake. Her finance, Jeff cook us an amazing meal. I was so full! It was a blast to catch up with her and their friends. Shooter and Hank had a blast with Ohno, Christina and Jeff's dog. I stayed up until 5 am which I think was a bad idea but it was a blast hanging out. I think that Jeff and I had an hour conversation just about food. He is a great cook and there are so many things that I can learn from him. It was fun just talking about food. Shooter was trying to get ice out of the cooler that they had on the floor. At one point I just left it open to see him in the act getting the ice out. It was really funny.

Today 1-1-2011, we dropped off Jon's helmet to his cousin to pinstripe, took down the christmas tree and all the decorations that were in the house. Now I need to vacuum up all the fake pine needles that are all over the carpet but I think that can wait unit tomorrow morning. I also, made homemade Chicken Noodle Soup for dinner tonight. It was quite filling and yummy. One of Jon's friends came over tonight to give him random parts that he thought Jon could use on his bikes. I think that it is time for bed. Jon has to get up early to go hunting tomorrow morning. I am keeping my fingers crossed that he gets a deer...